The Lost Season
by NuttyScribbler
Summary: Naruto Drabbles.
1. The Lost Season

LJ Community 31 Days

August 15 - You recognise the fragrance of one you desire, and a less obvious sadness.

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There was no spring in the Village of Sound, it was always summer and fittingly enough, somewhat like hell: a boiling cauldron of sin and evil. Sasuke found that he didn't mind it that much, the changing of seasons has never affected his daily routine: practice, missions, sleep, practice. Seasons to him, was never more than another measure of time, carrying the inevitable into fruition.

But for some unknown reason, he was standing today at the Valley of the End. The wind was blowing strong, carrying with it a few stray cherry blossom petals. Sasuke raised a hand and plucked the pink silk pieces out of the air, crushed it and brought it to his face. He closed his eyes and inhaled...

It was a fragrance almost forgotten: unfamilliar yet nostalgic. Spring was beautiful in the Village of Leaf; the cherry blossom trees had started bloom and the air was clean with the smell of new grass. Colour bloomed once more in the Endless Plains.

Another memory rose unbidden; the flash of green eyes, pale limbs and hair the colour of cherry blossoms. The figure smiled and flung her arms out to him in welcome and called out...

"Sasuke-kun"

"What is it, Kabuto?" His voice was toneless, masking his inner turmoil. There was a melancholic air about him.

"Orochimaru-sama requests your presence in the main hall immediately." Kabuto's glasses glinted in the sunlight. "There is news of the Akatsuki and your bro..." he halted and corrected himself purposely, "... and Uchiha Itachi."

"I will return soon. Leave me now."

Kabuto departed without another word. Sasuke opened his palm and flung its contents into the winds, and watched the leftover rags of his heart disappear in the distance.


	2. Once Upon A Dream

LJ Community 31 Days Theme

August 13/Believe me, moonlight is the stuff whereof/My lady's limbs are made. I offer proof.

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Naruto saw a goddess once. Or thought he saw one. His eyes might have been playing tricks on him. It was late. Or maybe he was only dreaming; if so, then it was a particularly real and life-like dream. A lovely dream at that. A dream which he wishes will visit upon him again.

Her skin was pale like the moonlight that shone from above. She was dancing on water, the surface hardly rippled beneath her feet and her movements had the lightness and grace of a faery. Naruto cannot remember her face, but in his recollection, he sees the expression of utmost rapture formed in her features.

He reached out for her but he stumbled, his fingers curled around a nearby plant for support. A passing cloud obscured the moon, casting all momentarily into darkness. When Naruto looked up again, she had gone. All she had left behind were the feelings wonderment and loss and longing.


	3. Perfect Vision

The Hyuuga Clan of Konohagakure no Sato had always been proud of their special bloodline; even the weakest of the branch families were blessed with eyesight keen enough to rival the hawks.

Therefore it was only reasonable that Neji felt suitably insulted when the number one densest ninja in Konoha told him his vision was defective. After all, he was the Hyuuga genius who had mastered practically all his clan's bloodline limit had to offer.

Actually, Uzumaki Naruto was a whole lot more direct than that. His exact words were, "You're really blind when it comes to her, Neji."

Neji refrained from bristling up indignantly. "My vision is most certainly not impaired," he gritted out. "It is quite obvious that Tenten is not seeing anyone because she wants to channel all her energy into achieving her dream of being the perfect kunoichi, as is expected of her."

Naruto stared at him for a long while before shaking his head slowly. He looked as if he was trying to stop himself from bursting into uncontrollable fits of laughter. "Just… just open your eyes the next time when you're around her, okay?"

The Hyuuga Prodigy opened his mouth to retort but was cut short the arrival of his cousin. The blonde man immediately lit up at the sight of his lovely girlfriend.

Hah. He saw that. He sure as hell wasn't blind.

All the same, he'll just pay more attention to his team mate. Just to prove Naruto wrong of course. Not because of anything else. Not because she was strongest woman he had known after his own mother. And definitely not because he kinda missed her when she's away for missions (he only missed her because he has to deal with both Lee and Gai alone and that can be very trying even for a genius).

And so, he started to watch her more and more.

He began to see how handsome she had become; she was not striking in the conventional sense, but rather her simple strength, warm personality and sincerity shone from within, giving her an air of soft serenity. She no longer walked with the slouch of a gangly teenager, too tall for her age, but with the graceful gait of a lady.

He found her most attractive when she was in battle. Even though her face was shielded by her ANBU mask, he could see the flex of her arm muscles when she throws her kunai and was mesmerised by way her katana seemed to be an extension of her body which she wielded with deadly efficiency.

Soon enough, he began to see her as more than a team mate, more than a comrade and more than a friend.

He saw her as a woman.

His woman.

Neji learnt the meaning of 'perfect vision' when he woke up one day and saw her lying in bed beside him. Her long dark hair fanned out on the white pillow behind her and her long lashes cast crescent shaped shadows on her freckled cheeks. He could see her rosy red lips and the tiny bite marks on the skin of her neck and collar bone, claiming her as his.

His breath got caught in his throat when her eyes fluttered open and she smiled sleepily at him. "Neji," her lips formed a single word.

He bent down and kissed her softly on the lips and felt her respond by parting them slightly. It was then Neji realised you do not need eyes to truly see.


	4. Deja Vu

(LJ Comm 31 Days)

August 24: So keep your silence, and know: This man, unless slain, is fated to die.

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"You can't DIE," she half-whispered, half-gasped, as she continued to perform chakra-charged chest compressions on cooling body. The blood that dripped down the corners of his mouth has already started to dry and turn brown. In her blinding grief, she felt Naruto trying to pull her off the body, trying to make her see reason ("Sakura-chan, he is dead. Sasuke is dead and you can't bring him back." and other things she didn't want to hear; things she knows but will not acknowledge because he can't just die and leave her behind).

In a weird sense of deja vu, she has been here before. But they were twelve then, and she wasn't a top class medic-nin. She thought she had lost him, but Death had returned to her.

There were so many things she wanted to tell him (she studied medicine because she wants to heal his body, even if she can't heal his soul) but the words seem to have melded themselves into a string of indistinguishable guttural sounds of fatique and desperation. When she felt the last of her physical strength and chakra depart her body in the final compression, she collapsed onto his body, exhausted and wept; it was his heart which stopped beating, but it was hers which shattered.

"If you must go," she whispers to the cold body beneath her, the body that was Sasuke, "then take me along." Sakura closed her eyes, very sure she too, was going to die, for a broken heart like hers, surely cannot beat.


End file.
